Lord Warner: The Department of Health awarded a grant to primary care mental health education under the Section 64 General Scheme (S64), in respect of their Doctors' Supportline project. This three-year grant ended in 2003–04. The maximum funding period for a project under the S64 is three years.
	The aim of the S64 is to provide time-limited funding for innovative proposals of national significance, which are in furtherance of the department's policy objectives. The S64 makes it clear from the outset that long-term continuous funding for a project is not available via this route.
	The department is investing £5 million over three years to support the development of infrastructure for mental health helplines, through the Mental Health Helplines Partnership (MHHP), which will give better access, choice and quality to callers. Members of the MHHP are eligible to apply for financial assistance on one occasion only, with applications being considered by the MHHP steering group.
	Further information and an application form can be found at www.mhhp.org.uk

Lord Warner: The specific information as requested is not collected centrally.
	(a) For National Health Service hospitals in England and Wales for the past three years, there were two reported incidents of death associated with unnecessary surgery identified by the National Patient Safety Agency's national reporting and learning system. Data by each strategic health authority are not available. It is not possible to tell from these data whether an operation contributed in any way to the actual cause of death of the patient or whether death was a result of other factors such as underlying morbidity.
	(b) For NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom, the numbers of reports of suspected adverse drug reactions reported with a fatal outcome in the past three years are provided in the following table.
	
		
			 Received Year Number of reports Number of reports (percentage) fatal outcome 
			 2003 18,791 737 (4 per cent) 
			 2004 19,337 862 (4 per cent) 
			 2005 21,234 1,032 (5 per cent) 
		
	
	The reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions does not necessarily mean that the reactions were caused by the drug. Many factors have to be taken into account in assessing causal relationships including temporal association, the possible contribution of concomitant medication and the underlying disease. In addition, reporting is subject to variable and unknown levels of underreporting.
	(c) Information on deaths from all hospital acquired infections is not available. The Office for National Statistics publishes analyses of meticillin resistant staphylococcus aureus and clostridium difficile deaths in England and Wales, but these data do not indicate if the infection was acquired in hospital or elsewhere, or in which strategic health authority it was acquired.
	(d) Information of deaths arising from homeopathy is not available.
	(e) There is no information available of any fatalities associated with acupuncture devices such as needles.
	(f) For NHS hospitals in England and Wales for the past three years, there were 22 reported incidents of death associated with misdiagnosis. Data by each strategic health authority is not available. It is not possible to tell from these data whether misdiagnosis contributed in any way to the actual cause of death.

Lord Warner: All major private finance initiative (PFI) schemes in procurement are subject to a revalidation exercise we announced in January. Revalidation will involve comparing the schemes against a number of tests, to ensure that they properly take account of the new financial mechanisms operating in the National Health Service (such as choice or payment by results), and are properly taking account of activity of the shift away from the acute sector envisaged in the recent White Paper Our health, our care, our say.
	The first three schemes reviewed were Barts and London, Birmingham and St Helens and St Knowsley, a total capital investment of almost £2 billion. All proved generally compliant and recently got the go-ahead to sign contracts, subject to some small reductions in scope.
	Following the review of their proposed £167 million PFI scheme, the board at Essex Rivers NHS Trust announced on 14 June that it is withdrawing from the project. The trust decided that plans for a new treatment and primary care centre, as well as those for a new Harwich Hospital, meant that the project was no longer affordable and did not offer the best way to improve services for local NHS patients.
	Prior to the revalidation exercise the value of the future PFI programme was £12 billion. We are now forecasting an overall reduced post-review value of between £7 billion and £9 billion.
	The announcement of further decisions following the PFI reviews will be in two waves. It is anticipated that the announcement for schemes which are most advanced—generally, those that have already appointed their preferred bidder—will be in late July. The remainder will be announced later in the year.

Lord Davies of Oldham: No assessments are being made by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Lyons inquiry is considering a wide range of issues about local government's role and funding, including the potential for local taxes and charges, and I am aware that a number of tourism industry bodies, at national, regional and local level, have made submissions to Sir Michael Lyons on the potential impact of an accommodation tax. The Government will not take any decisions on changes to local government finance, until it has had the chance to consider and reflect on Sir Michael's report and recommendations. We will fully assess the potential impact of Sir Michael's recommendations once he has made them, as is appropriate in the case of an independent review, and respond accordingly. Sir Michael's final report is scheduled for the end of 2006.